All The 2014 Oscar Movies Are About Surviving The Impossible

Have you ever noticed how sometimes all the Oscar nominees for the year seem to follow a certain theme? I remember there was one year that almost all the winners of the acting awards were foreigners, and last year it seemed like your movie had to be pushing three hours to even be considered for Best Picture.

And even though the Academy haven't announced their nominations yet — and won't until some time in January — we still have a pretty good idea of what the contenders are going to be. This is our job, after all. And looking through the seven Oscar-buzzy movies that have been released so far, I realized that five of them were on exactly the same topic: survival.

From diseases to oppression to environments and beyond, five of the movies I'm predicting will be up for Best Picture tackle the theme of surviving impossible circumstances. And considering that the maximum number of films that will be put up for that category is ten, we're talking about fifty percent of the movies with the same theme, here. Fifty percent of the movies fascinated by the exact same subject — something going wrong and the riveting, intense journey taken by the protagonists in an attempt to correct it. Bonus points if there are impossible odds and it feels like a rollercoaster for your emotions.

Don't believe me? Check out what happens when you break down each movie to its most basic outline. It's right there in black and white.